Would John Cooper have approved the Mini “Skeg”?
This page is translated from the original post "John Cooper aurait-il validé la Mini “Skeg” ?" in French.
- 07/09/2025 15:10
MINI electrifies the sporty JCW variant with a concept “The Skeg,” but would John Cooper have recognized his Mini?
We can hardly imagine John Cooper, the wizard of the paddocks, the one who transformed the gentle little Mini into a rally terror, swooning over The Skeg, this pumped-up, surf-friendly electric version designed with Deus Ex Machina. Nothing is less certain.
Because where Cooper saw grease, shortened gear ratios, and victories clawed from treacherous roads, MINI presents us today with a rolling surfboard. Translucent fiberglass, a spoiler that mimics the curvature of a wave, straps like a wet suit, and neoprene seats… We are no longer in the British preparer’s workshop, but in a lifestyle shop on Bondi Beach.
MINI goes astray
Of course, the pedigree remains respectable on paper: 258 electric horsepower, a body lightened by 15%, worked aerodynamics. Enough to give The Skeg a semblance of responsiveness. But the silence of the engine, however noble for the environment, is likely to make the old-timers smile. A show car born from gliding rather than the track, where the smell of motor oil is replaced by that of surf wax.
MINI insists on “authenticity” and the “beauty of imperfection.” Yet, the project exudes more trendy marketing than the sweat of makeshift workshops that built the legend of the Cooper S. The curbs of Monte Carlo have been swapped for oceanic metaphors. The illuminated grille is where, once upon a time, a radiator stood ready to overheat after a mountain pass.
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So, would John Cooper have liked The Skeg? Perhaps for its audacity. Certainly not for the roar, which is absent. Because the MINI version Deus Ex Machina is not a racing machine: it is a rolling postcard, beautiful and full of symbols, but disconnected from what made its mentor’s heart beat. In summary, The Skeg is a pop and arty celebration of the MINI universe. But a celebration that, in the mirror of the paddocks, has a slight ironic wink at the man who primarily believed in seconds won, not tamed waves.
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